How powerful is a sonic rainboom?

[Mewtew 13]

I have no idea whether or not this has been figured out before, but i haven't been able to find anything on it, so let's try and figure it out!

 

(Keep in mind that I'm new to these forums and suck at math and other stuff like that.)

 

Most of the stuff I will be talking about on here will revolve around season 1 episode 23, where it shows Rarity getting her cutie mark.

 

As you all know, when Rarity gets her cutie mark, Rainbow Dash preforms her first sonic rainboom. Shattering a geode and helping Rarity get her cutie mark.

 

The first thing I worked out is how far away the rock is from Ponyville.

 

When Rarity was first dragged out of her home by her magic, it appeared to be around mid day.

When her magic kicked in and took her away, she appeared to go at a running speed of about 6-9 miles per hour, she then traveled for about a day (you tell because one of the scenes was at night) and stopped at the rock at about what looks like around the same time the next day.

 

Assuming that the speed was constant and there were no major changes in direction, she would have traveled around 308.994 Kilometers (192 miles) away from Ponyville. 

 

The second thing I worked out was the size of the geode that was shattered by the rainboom.

 

Assuming that most ponies are around 4 feet high, and fillies being a little more than half of that height, I took into assumption that most fillies are around 2.5 feet high.

With this data I was able to figure out that the geode was around 12.5 feet high, and 7.5 feet thick.

 

Geodes are hollow, perhaps that's why none of the other rocks around Rarity shattered.

 

The walls of the geode appeared to be a few inches thick.

 

For an explosion to shatter a few inches of stone from 190+ miles away, I would assume that it would have to be pretty powerful.

 

The rainboom was preformed not that far from the ground though, so wouldn't that have catastrophic consequences? I'm not so sure.

 

Perhaps the rainboom's major effect is horizontally, and not vertically?

 

Maybe the effect that the rainboom has vertically is what pushes dashie up to the high speeds that she can reach?

 

Now, I'm pretty darn terrible at calculating psi, so, how much psi would it take to shatter a few inches of stone?

 

Thanks.

 

 

[~Silver Essence~ 2,621]

Strong enough to possibly rip open a vortex of time if possible in real world.

 

It can stretch for a long distance to the point where it's unknown where it stops.

 

Truly an amazing thing to see in ponyville. 

[Scootalove 10,684]

The Sonic Rainboom could probably be very powerful, even powerful enough to break the sound barrier. Many theories could lead to Rainbow Dash's ability to make break the speed of sound and the speed of light if possible.

[Zygen 6,065]

Well, i'm not exactly a math wiz, but I will say this.

 

A Rainboom and Sonic boom are apparently the same since Pinkie said in explaining a Sonic rainboom to Twilight that its a rainbow and A Sonic boom together.

 

In order to create a Sonic boom you must reach 1 mach. Or 1,225 km/h (761 mph). 

 

The amount of pressure produced by the resulting sonic boom depends on how low your altitude is.

 

However it has apparently not been told that any sonicbooms have caused harm to any humans really.

It has be able to shatter glass though with Airplanes flown closer to the ground.

 

Apparently the most powerful sonic boom was produced by an aircraft at an altitude of about 100 Ft. and created about 144 PSF(Pounds per square foot.)

 

This didn't affect the researches like i said, but did shatter glass.

 

It can apparently cause shock waves in the ground to.

 

So the shockwaves rarity felt were atleast accurate.

 

Now i'm not totally sure how to mathematically conduct how much PSF it would take to shatter a geode such as the one in episode 23, it doesn't look terribly thick, but rock is still pretty decently hard.

 

So in the end.. I really don't know the exact answer. .

 

Other then the 144 PSF being the strongest ever recorded apparently i don't have much else.

 

I can assume that Sonic rainbooms and Sonic booms are the same strength basically though.

[Dsanders 5,742]

Well, i'm not exactly a math wiz, but I will say this.

 

A Rainboom and Sonic boom are apparently the same since Pinkie said in explaining a Sonic rainboom to Twilight that its a rainbow and A Sonic boom together.

 

In order to create a Sonic boom you must reach 1 mach. Or 1,225 km/h (761 mph). 

 

The amount of pressure produced by the resulting sonic boom depends on how low your altitude is.

 

However it has apparently not been told that any sonicbooms have caused harm to any humans really.

It has be able to shatter glass though with Airplanes flown closer to the ground.

 

Apparently the most powerful sonic boom was produced by an aircraft at an altitude of about 100 Ft. and created about 144 PSF(Pounds per square foot.)

 

This didn't affect the researches like i said, but did shatter glass.

 

It can apparently cause shock waves in the ground to.

 

So the shockwaves rarity felt were atleast accurate.

 

Now i'm not totally sure how to mathematically conduct how much PSF it would take to shatter a geode such as the one in episode 23, it doesn't look terribly thick, but rock is still pretty decently hard.

 

So in the end.. I really don't know the exact answer. .

 

Other then the 144 PSF being the strongest ever recorded apparently i don't have much else.

 

I can assume that Sonic rainbooms and Sonic booms are the same strength basically though.

That's probably the best answer you can get! ^

 

Well done Zygen.

 

I really should get back into my physics on this.

 

Just to note, a mach cone was forming around her before forming her sonic rainboom. Mach cones typically form around jets or airplanes after they break the sound barrier. So assuming that the "rainbow-sound barrier" that she broke takes more centrifugal force and velocity to break than the average sound barrier, then clearly she was going at an insanely fast rate. 

[Zygen 6,065]

That's probably the best answer you can get! ^

 

Well done Zygen.

 

I really should get back into my physics on this.

 

Just to note, a mach cone was forming around her before forming her sonic rainboom. Mach cones typically form around jets or airplanes after they break the sound barrier. So assuming that the "rainbow-sound barrier" that she broke takes more centrifugal force and velocity to break than the average sound barrier, then clearly she was going at an insanely fast rate. 

, i just pulled up a wikipedia article or some crap xD, and did a bit of inferring and using info there.

 

I suppose you have a point with the mach cone, however I really don't think that she could've been going a whole ton faster then a mach, if she even surpassed it in the first place.

 

I'm not totally sure on how the rainbow is formed, whether it has to do with going faster then the speed of light, or if it has to do with her mane colors or if it rips open a whole in space time or what xD.

 

That part is the hard part to explain, much harder then the sonic boom portion.

[Dsanders 5,742]

I suppose you have a point with the mach cone, however I really don't think that she could've been going a whole ton faster then a mach, if she even surpassed it in the first place.

 

First off,

 

 

lol

 

So I think in that regards, the general physics in such an equation is critically flawed. In my own unique headcannon, I like to believe that there is a sound barrier and a rainbow-sound barrier.

 

And in the following clip, my head cannon says she manage to break the first sound barrier at 0:58 in the video. Because seconds after that, a mach cone already starts forming around her. So I'm guessing regular sonic booms are silent, invisible and miniscule in the world of Equestria.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WImRs-nWW48

 

Then at 1:18 in the video is where she broke the headcannon and theoretical rainbow-sound barrier, which takes twice the speed and acceleration to break than the average sound barrier.

 

Because she is Rainbow Dash and she is awesome like that. So is my theory. lol jk..

Edited August 26, 2013 by Sanderspie

[Zygen 6,065]

First off,

 

 

lol

 

So I think in that regards, the general physics in such an equation is critically flawed. In my own unique headcannon, I like to believe that there is a sound barrier and a rainbow-sound barrier.

 

And in the following clip, my head cannon says she manage to break the first sound barrier at 0:58 in the video. Because seconds after that, a mach cone already starts forming around her. So I'm guessing regular sonic booms are silent, invisible and miniscule in the world of Equestria.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WImRs-nWW48

 

Then at 1:18 in the video is where she broke the headcannon and theoretical rainbow-sound barrier, which takes twice the speed and acceleration to break than the average sound barrier.

 

Because she is Rainbow Dash and she is awesome like that. So is my theory. lol jk..

But analyzing shows that aren't meant to follow the laws of physics is fun.. .

 

Well, like i said i don't have a solid headcannon of my own as far as sonic rainbooms and how they produce rainbows.

 

But i do think the sonic boom portion is related to sonic booms atleast in some regard.

 

You head cannon sounds pretty solid, makes sense for the most part.

 

Of course we don't know the exactly speed she increases to for the Rainboom in your headcannon, we know when she reaches mach, but not nessarily where she ends up for a sonic rainboom.

 

Not sure how we'd figure that out anyways .

[vikingerik 6]

The sonic rainboom has to happen a lot slower than the speed of sound.  The timing in Sonic Rainboom is all wrong for it to actually happen at Mach 1.

 

Terminal velocity for a falling human in air is about 120 miles per hour, and would be about the same for a pony body too.  Rarity falls for about 50 seconds, and Rainbow Dash starts diving after about 20 so chases for 30.  RD covers the same distance in 60% of the time, or 1/0.6 = 1.66 times faster, so her average velocity for the dive is only 200 mph.  If RD actually reached Mach 1 at 768 mph, she would cover the distance to catch Rarity in about eight seconds instead of the 30 it actually took.

 

Also consider the implied altitude of Cloudsdale Coliseum.  Rarity falling at 120 mph for 40 seconds after passing through the coliseum gives an altitude of 7040 feet or 1.33 miles, which is actually just about right, cumulus clouds really exist around that height.  Rainbow diving near Mach 1 for 30 seconds would instead yield an altitude of over six miles, which has lots of problems: the air would be too thin to support breathing, or wing-based flight, or clouds, or the mane six's balloon.  And also Rarity would have to be falling at Mach 0.6 or 420 mph which is far faster than terminal velocity and unachievable without active propulsion.

 

The other appearances of the sonic rainboom are also more consistent with occurring much slower than the speed of sound.  The one in Cutie Mark Chronicles has the same problem of an impractical altitude if RD is really moving at Mach 1, and the one at the end of Canterlot Wedding happens far too quickly for RD to accelerate to anywhere near that.

 

So given that the rainboom occurs at more like 200 mph than 768, it's not nearly as powerful as a sonic boom or a jet fighter.  200 mph is more along the lines of a Formula 1 or Indy car.  Still enough to demolish a barn, but that would be about the upper limit of its power.

Edited August 26, 2013 by vikingerik